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3/5/2014 9:47AM

High Stakes Limit West's Efforts to Punish Putin

Threats by the U.S. and European powers to impose tough sanctions on Russia over its incursion into Ukraine have run into a difficult economic reality: the West has as much at stake as Moscow. WSJ's Matthew Karnitschnig has details. Photo: AP.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... the ... last year Karnitschnig ... joins us now with the story from well in the Matthew thank you Brian much for being map ... she ... cited to explain now this is like imposing sanctions on Iran ... it's a much different story take this through its top West up ... well that's exactly right and as we just heard from Mr Jenin in the world is now very interconnected ... Russia is a big player in energy it's a very large economy in terms of ... the global comparisons ... and so good to be much more difficult to put into boxes same way that the international community did when he ran ... and ... with me and MAR two to three ... and two radar screen fact and to that other countries that we've seen ... him ... suffer over the past to the iOS seven years under various ancient keeps ... not no rush to ... get in your story to it ... Matthew ... has some information about how import Russia's market is to your up and and it's a it's a it's my new day from a few years ago if you if you missed the blank you mind on the other things are in your story with you ... I ... the statement read enacted the twenty fifth of ... them but might not be as obvious from U S perspective is that ... Russia ... has become very embedded in the European economy in various ways and it's it's not just in in the energy sector which was Eurolot about and that obviously is very significant in crucial facts to ... a lot of European countries which get their ... gas from Russia ... to sell the book on important market for cars and machinery especially for German companies not only especially for ... German companies in Europe Germany's exports more to Russia than it does to Turkey and Japan combined for example ... so this is a very important market for Europe at a time when ... many parts of Europe are already suffering still ... because of the debt crisis there stagnation across the euro zone ... is not just in ... time that a lot of European leaders to induce ... say well we can just forget about Russia and will will take the economic it especially if it would mean ... higher unemployment and an accident ... and when we probably got the graphic up on on the swing now Matthews of Russia's total of two thousand but in all it was to Europe but at this and ... I'm hopeful that flows through you can you cry supply Ukraine very import to Europe on them but come up to bite you mention the main cause of high value added products ... on these a lot of natural resources ... at me is a lot of light but still even in this rope loss a cage and ... that that would be very bad for their refried Adil them in the heart of the affront to old Europe ... that's right if you look at countries like France which obviously has a significant other sectors well that ... has been struggling ... Renault is a major player in the ... Russian car markets they have ... very substantial operations there ... so when you hear ... rhetoric out of Russia as well ... as as we did today is soo ... suggesting that baby might be willing to seize foreign accent sees for property ... and that I think it's it's going to make a lot of people ... very nervous very nervous and did what an interconnected world we live in thank you very much ... WSJ's Matthew Karnitschnig ... repression of time